The Great West Wing Rewatch: 2.10 "Noel"

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Joel: It wasn’t as rough as last season’s Christmas episode, but this one still has that oomph to it that you have to take a few days to recover from. After the first handful of episodes at the start of the season, everything seems to have pretty much gone back to normal. There hasn’t been a huge, Josh centered episode since the shooting and recovery, but he’s been around and seems to have been keeping up with everyone else just fine. That is until this episode. We pretty much get the entire story through flashback snippets of the past three weeks. Normally, I would say it’s a bit of a stretch to see someone acting perfectly fine, only to have them acting entirely differently during the one episode where they address the issues, however this particular episode does a fantastic job of that. It helps that we know the content takes place over a period of three weeks, but what really makes it work is the subtle changes in Josh’s demeanor and personality as the show goes along. It is easy to hide it during a first viewing, because Josh is already a character that gets passionately riled up pretty easily and working in the White House is a stressful job to begin with. But watching the episode again, It’s easy to see Josh’s reactions slowly building and rising, leading up to the shouting moment in the oval office. In a lighter side story, we get to see CJ tracking down the original owner of a painting in the White House and being able to return it to them, a process that involves speaking to Bernard Thatch, one of my favorite one off characters from the whole show (even though he technically appears in more than one episode.)

Chris: Just when you think Josh has returned back to normal after the shooting, this episode hits and you realize that it’s all an act. Honestly, it was probably an act that fooled Josh himself. I’m glad for this episode because it builds on Josh’s depth that was first explored in the 2-part season premiere so that he’s not just that overly sarcastic, smart, condescending guy that strikes out with all the ladies. It also further establishes that father-son relationship Leo has with Josh and who better to help than a guy that understands struggling with something like this? Part of me does wonder why Josh was the one that ended up with PTSD and not the president? Sure, Josh’s condition was much more severe but he wasn’t the only person that was shot that night. But then again, the other shoe is going to drop soon enough with Bartlet’s health and his MS so perhaps Sorkin didn’t wish to load that character with more ailments.

A good president sends out 1.1 million Christmas cards.

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